By — Nicole Ellis Nicole Ellis By — Casey Kuhn Casey Kuhn By — Yasmeen Sami Alamiri Yasmeen Sami Alamiri Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/watch-women-and-girls-are-still-protesting-in-iran-heres-why Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter WATCH: Women and girls are still protesting in Iran. Here’s why World Mar 9, 2023 12:53 PM EDT Seven months after 22-year-old Mahsa Amini was killed at the hands of Iran’s so-called morality police in September, protests across the country calling for the rights of women and girls continue. Amini’s death after she was arrested for allegedly violating the country’s conservative dress code for women sparked sustained protests led by women and young people. The Iranian government has detained over 20,000 protesters and killed more than 500, according to Human Rights Activists in Iran, a group that has been tracking the movement. Since November, a string of suspected poisonings has taken place at more than 50 girls’ schools across the country. While it isn’t yet known who is behind the attacks, “One thing is clear: It’s systematic and it is targeting young women because the young women are the ones who dare to stand up,” said Elham Gheytanchi-Fotoohi, an Iran expert and instructor of sociology at Santa Monica College, in a March 8 conversation with PBS NewsHour Digital Correspondent Nicole Ellis. Watch the conversation in the player above. This is not the first time women in Iran have advocated for their rights on a large scale. The widespread progress for equity in Iran was swiftly reversed during the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which ousted Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s secular monarchy and replaced it with the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s Shiite Islam-driven regime. The new government implemented restrictions that specifically targeted women and girls — limiting their career prospects and pushing a strict dress code, which included making the hijab mandatory. On March 8, 1979, what started as a meeting to mark International Women’s Day turned into a protest against the mandatory hijab. The protests now are reminiscent of those early pushes for equity, Gheytanchi-Fotoohi said. Gheytanchi-Fotoohi said that the women and girls protesting in Iran today don’t aim to overthrow the country’s government; instead, they’re demanding the right to “have freedom over our own bodies.” By — Nicole Ellis Nicole Ellis Nicole Ellis is PBS NewsHour's digital anchor where she hosts pre- and post-shows and breaking news live streams on digital platforms and serves as a correspondent for the nightly broadcast. Ellis joined the NewsHour from The Washington Post, where she was an Emmy nominated on-air reporter and anchor covering social issues and breaking news. In this role, she hosted, produced, and directed original documentaries and breaking news videos for The Post’s website, YouTube, Amazon Prime, Facebook and Twitch, earning a National Outstanding Breaking News Emmy Nomination for her coverage of Hurricane Harvey in 2017. Ellis created and hosted The Post’s first original documentary series, “Should I freeze my eggs?,” in which she explores her own fertility and received the 2019 Digiday Publishers Award. She also created and hosted the Webby Award-winning news literacy series “The New Normal,” the most viewed video series in the history of The Washington Post’s women’s vertical, The Lily. She is the author of “We Go High,” a non-fiction self-help-by-proxy book on overcoming adversity publishing in 2022, and host of Critical Conversations on BookClub, an author-led book club platform. Prior to that, Ellis was a part of the production team for the Peabody and Emmy Award-winning series, CNN Heroes. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and Human Rights from Columbia University, as well as a Master’s in Journalism from Columbia Journalism School. By — Casey Kuhn Casey Kuhn Casey is a producer for NewsHour's digital video team. She has won several awards for her work in broadcast journalism, including a national Edward R. Murrow award. @caseyatthedesk By — Yasmeen Sami Alamiri Yasmeen Sami Alamiri Yasmeen Sami Alamiri is the Senior Editor for video and special projects at the PBS NewsHour.
Seven months after 22-year-old Mahsa Amini was killed at the hands of Iran’s so-called morality police in September, protests across the country calling for the rights of women and girls continue. Amini’s death after she was arrested for allegedly violating the country’s conservative dress code for women sparked sustained protests led by women and young people. The Iranian government has detained over 20,000 protesters and killed more than 500, according to Human Rights Activists in Iran, a group that has been tracking the movement. Since November, a string of suspected poisonings has taken place at more than 50 girls’ schools across the country. While it isn’t yet known who is behind the attacks, “One thing is clear: It’s systematic and it is targeting young women because the young women are the ones who dare to stand up,” said Elham Gheytanchi-Fotoohi, an Iran expert and instructor of sociology at Santa Monica College, in a March 8 conversation with PBS NewsHour Digital Correspondent Nicole Ellis. Watch the conversation in the player above. This is not the first time women in Iran have advocated for their rights on a large scale. The widespread progress for equity in Iran was swiftly reversed during the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which ousted Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s secular monarchy and replaced it with the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s Shiite Islam-driven regime. The new government implemented restrictions that specifically targeted women and girls — limiting their career prospects and pushing a strict dress code, which included making the hijab mandatory. On March 8, 1979, what started as a meeting to mark International Women’s Day turned into a protest against the mandatory hijab. The protests now are reminiscent of those early pushes for equity, Gheytanchi-Fotoohi said. Gheytanchi-Fotoohi said that the women and girls protesting in Iran today don’t aim to overthrow the country’s government; instead, they’re demanding the right to “have freedom over our own bodies.”